Blackwell Reference Online

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As in other social sciences, modernization was the dominant paradigm in communication studies that sought to understand and define the role of communication in development in the late 1950s and 1960s. Modernization was originally proposed as synonymous with development. Development was understood as a transition toward a social order that mirrored the politics and economy of the west, namely, liberal democracy and capitalist and industrialized economies. Modernization's time of intellectual and policy ascendancy was the postwar years during the period of decolonization. Western scholars and powerful policymakers viewed modernization as an unavoidable and desirable transition for non-western societies (→  Communication as a Field and Discipline ; Communication and Media Studies, History to 1968 ; Development Communication ). As a theory, modernization offered both an explanation and a prediction for social change. As a process, modernization was used to describe the experience that so-called “developing” countries had to undergo in order to achieve the levels of economic and political development found in the west. One of modernization's central ideas was that culture should be considered the independent variable that accounts for specific outcomes (e.g., political, economic, social). Drawing from classic sociological theories, namely Max Weber's and Emile Durkheim's views on culture ... log in or subscribe to read full text